“The Bluest Eyes” – Toni Morrrison

Written by – Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford), is an American author, editor, and professor who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."

Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best known are her novels like, The Bluest Eye, Song Of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. In 2001 she was named one of "The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal.

 Character list:

  Pecola Breedlove

  Cholly Breedlove

  Pauline "Polly" Breedlove

  Sam Breedlove

  Auntie Jimmy

  The Fishers,etc

Main issue in the Novel:

-        Whiteness is beauty

-        Beauty is subjective

-        Love  is only as good as the lover

-        Gender disparity

-        Sacrifice

-        Sexual desire

About the Novel:

In The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove's father rapes her. When Pecola's baby dies, she goes mad. Pecola spends the rest of her days speaking to her imaginary friend about her blue eyes, which were given to her by Soaphead Church.

The "bluest eye" refers to the blue eyes of the blond American myth, by which standard the black-skinned and brown-eyed always measure up as inadequate.

At the beginning of the novel, Pecola Breedlove goes to live with Claudia and Frieda's family, the MacTeers, after her father Cholly burns down their old house.

Sometime after the Breedloves move into a new house, Cholly rapes Pecola, impregnating her. When she learns of the pregnancy, she goes to see Soaphead Church, the town's spiritual advisor, and asks him to give her blue eyes. Pecola's request is not for more money or a better house or even for more sensible parents; her request is for blue eyes — something that, even if she had been able to acquire them, would not have abated the harshness of her abject reality.

When Pecola's baby dies, she's driven mad by grief and abuse, and she spends the rest of her days staring into mirrors, talking to her imaginary friend about her big blue eyes.

So, The bluest Eyes provides an extended depiction of the ways in which internalized of the ways in which internalize white beauty girls and women. Nine-year- old Claudia and ten year- old Frieda Mac Teer live in Lorain Ohil, with their parents. It is the end of the great depression, and the girl’s parents are more concerned with making ends meet than with lavishing attention upon their daughters, but there is an undercurrent of love and stability in their home.

So, The Bluest Eye remains one of Tony Morrisons's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.